Clarity. Focus. Deep work. Productivity. Motivation.

I had all these things. And just as quickly as they came, they left.

Why? I always have something on my mind; something to do, something to plan for, something to get to keep things moving forward. Whether it’s work, school for my son, dinner ingredients, dog food, or running low on conditioner (because shampoo lasts forever), I have a runny list of things to check off.

When I sit down to focus on something, I have to be VERY intentional about it. That typically requires me to do the following:

• Sit in a quiet area
• Open a new browser window and only open tabs related to the work I want to accomplish
• Block off a set period of time for work (Pomodoro)
• Limit what I do on my breaks
• Compartmentalize what needs to get done (the dishes can wait)

Last blog post I described how I am going to take a break from the IT Support Specialist certification to focus on my primary goal of becoming a cloud native developer. I do want to clarify that I will focus on the front end first. I do want to get back into the swing of things with Python (and I really want to learn Django one day), but I’d rather NOT overwhelm myself and stick with a clear goal.

But let’s be honest…this journey has been met with a lot of “life” recently. Hence why this has been sitting in my draft folder for weeks now…sigh.